"We are not talking about a full evacuation ... It is notplanned that everyone will leave," Russian Deputy ForeignMinister Andrei Denisov said, according to the Itar-Tass newsagency.

Russia has been President Bashar al-Assad's most powerfulforeign protector during a 22-month uprising against his rule,vetoing three U.N. Security Council resolutions aimed to pushhim out or press him to end the bloodshed.

But President Vladimir Putin's Middle East affairs envoy wasquoted as saying in December that the rebels could defeat Assadand that Russia was preparing evacuation plans in case that wereneeded - comments Moscow officials have sought to play down.

The same envoy, Deputy Foreign Minister Mikhail Bogdanov,said on Tuesday: "We are helping those who want to leave."

"At the beginning there were predictions (that the fightingwould last) two to three months, four months," he said on thesidelines of a meeting in Moscow between Prime Minister DmitryMedvedev and Lebanese President Michel Suleiman.

"The military-political situation could develop in variousways, but we think it (the conflict) may be prolonged."

Russian authorities declined to say why the evacuation washappening via Lebanon, but security concerns about Damascusairport may have been a factor. Rebel attacks on the airporthave prompted many international airlines to suspend flights.

Dozens of Russians - many of them women and children wearingwinter coats and hats - arrived at Beirut airport in large whitebuses, escorted by Lebanese military police. Soldiers armed withassault rifles stood by as the families unloaded suitcases ontocarts.

Ammar, an 18-year-old student whose mother is Russian andfather is Syrian, said family friends had taken him to theLebanese border earlier in the day where he was picked up by thebus.

"It's a tragedy there," he said. "We hear bombs all thetime. We see the MiGs and the Sukhois in the sky."

Ammar said his parents were still in Damascus waiting tofinish paperwork before they left. "There's no transportation.We can't move anywhere," he said.

Russian officials say there are tens of thousands of Russiancitizens in Syria, many of them Russian women married toSyrians, and their children.

Moscow leases a naval maintenance and supply facility at theSyrian port of Tartous and there are some employees fromRussia's state arms exporting company Rosoboronexport. There wasno indication Moscow was withdrawing any of those personnel orits diplomats.

The Emergencies Ministry said it had no information aboutplans for more flights, and Foreign Ministry officials have notsaid whether a further evacuation was planned.

Moscow says it has no intention of propping up Assad butinsists he must not be pushed from power by outside forces andthat his exit must not be a precondition for a peace deal.

More than 60,000 people have been killed in the Syriaconflict, the United Nations estimates.